In June 1880, the reign of Australia's most famous bushrangers, the Kelly Gang, ended - guns blazing - in a fiery siege at the Glenrowan Inn. Ned Kelly survived, only to be hanged four months later. In this reimagining of Australia's most notorious bushranger,...
Victoria is astonished when she discovers an abandoned newborn baby on her doorstep, along with a note begging her to 'take care of little Rose'. Who is the mother? Victoria, Naomi and the Churchwood bookshop organising team set about trying to identify her,...
Blackpool, 1914. Seventeen-year-old Maddie has grown up in a boarding house on one of Blackpool's poorest streets, where she works alongside her mother taking care of their visitors. But when war breaks out, her happiness is shattered as her fiancé is called...
As the Great War rages, Jack's toffee factory in the market town of Chester-le-Street, Durham, is threatened with closure when sugar rations begin.Anne, who works for the owner Mr Jack, must choose between her heart and her head when Mr Jack declares his love...
May, 1910. The village of Oystertown is home to Janna Shilling and those who make their living from the sea. Yet social circles soon extend beyond the harbour, when a boating disaster brings Janna and her family into contact with the aristocratic Layards who...
It's late summer 1940, and Isla's Donahues idyllic lifestyle comes to an abrupt end when her father sends her to the harsh confines of the poorhouse. Determined to find a way to escape, Isla quickly enlists the help of her new friends, and together they leave...
She set men's hearts on fire and scandalized a country. In Regency London, the only way for a woman to succeed is to beat men at their own game. So when Mary Anne Clarke seeks an escape from her squalid surroundings in Bowling Inn Alley, she ventures first...
1940: Dover waits for the Nazi invasion... but what if Hitler's agents are already here, among them? Canadian journalist Jessica Marshall is reporting from Dover as the town is on the brink of a German invasion. But her story never makes it into the paper......
Jam is sweet but it can also burn. Tasmania, 1874. Growing up in the impoverished tenements along the Hobart Rivulet, Harriet Brown is used to doing whatever it takes to survive. Including, at just twelve years old, shearing off her hair and pretending to be a...
Corfu, 1934. The moment Thirza Caruthers sets foot on Corfu, memories flood back: the scent of jasmine, the green shutters of her family's home - and her brother Billy's tragic disappearance years before. Returning to the Greek house, high above clear blue...
"Where there's a rulebook, there's a rebel ... Ruby McBride has always been on the wrong side of authority. The grand opening of the Manchester Ship Canal is set to be a day of unfettered festivity for Ruby and her younger sister and brother. Even Queen...
"Autumn, 1895. The turn of the century is approaching and Paris is as chaotic as it is glamorous. Industry and invention create huge wealth and terrible poverty. One morning, an anarchist boards the ill-fated Granville to Paris express train, determined to...
Step 1: Find perfect wife. Step 2: Save reputation from ruin. Step 3: Do not, at any cost, fall in love with Selina. Peter Kent - newly inherited Duke of Stanhope - must become respectable. Between his radical politics and the time he interrupted a minor royal...
From the bestselling author of Rebecca. On her eighteenth birthday, Honor Harris meets Sir Richard Grenvile: he is proud, reckless - and utterly captivating. They have a rare connection, and with her beauty and sharp wit, she intrigues him too. But days before...
The Vikings on the Cotentin try to live in peace with their neighbours, the Franks, but when they are attacked they have to fight. Aided by fellow Vikings they begin to make inroads into the land of the Franks until disaster strikes and the new allies meet...
Amid the rising flood waters and shearers' strike violence, can one brave woman reclaim her future? From an Australian bestselling author comes a riveting historical adventure about one woman's journey from a life of isolation to one of love and acceptance....
Rosa Roshkin is five years old when her family are murdered in a pogrom and she is forced to leave behind everything she knows with only a suitcase of clothes and her fathers violin. An epic generational story about womanhood and Judaeo-Scottish experience...
Bees choose their masters. Bees don't sting good people. Maryte is a devoted beekeeper. She lives by the old rules: work with fellow beekeepers, be a good Christian and a good harvest will follow. These rules help her cope with her grief when she inherits her...
Even the worst person has a best friend. A chilling black comedy, The First Friend imagines a gangster mob in charge of a global superpower. The Soviet Union 1938: Lavrentiy Beria, 'The Boss' of the Georgian republic, nervously prepares a Black Sea resort for...
We are the spaces between the words. Inspired by a real person, In the Margins is the story of spirited book-collector Frances Wolfreston the woman who uniquely preserved the earliest part of Shakespeare's legacy. England, 1647. As civil war gives way to an...
Until you face your past can you really have a future? Cork, 1939. Kitty Flinn is only seventeen when she is forced to give up her new-born in a baby and mother home. Heartbroken and desperate for a fresh start she leaves Ireland behind for London, vowing to...
A breathtaking new novel, perfect for fans of Saltburn. Tommo has just started at a new school a training ground for the Scottish elite when his friend Johnnie's brother is found dead in a Land Rover on a Highland farm. There's a shotgun at his feet. Nobody...
Winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Winner of the Western Australian Premiers Book Award, Winner of the Kate Challis RAKA Award. Harley, a man of Nyoongar ancestry, finds himself at a difficult point in the history of his country, family and self. As...
London, 1873. Madeleine Brewster's marriage to Dr Lucius Everley was meant to be the solution to her family's sullied reputation. After all, Lucius is a well-respected collector of natural curiosities. His 'Small Museum' of bones and specimens in jars is his...
Her family's story made Henry Lawson famous. But was it his story to tell? Fact and fiction meld into one in this stirring family saga set against shifting landscapes and pivotal moments in Australian history. Lillian was born in 1892, the same year Henry...
The exhilarating follow-up to Pat Barker's The Women of Troy and The Silence of the Girls. After ten blood-filled years, the war is over. Troy lies in smoking ruins as the victorious Greeks fill their ships with the spoils of battle. Alongside the treasures...
1469, England. For almost ten years, Edward IV has ruled with the Earl of Warwick’s support, but now rebellion threatens England’s fragile peace. With the Midlands in uproar, the last thing King Edward needs is potential trouble in the form of an unwed...
Paris, 1789. The Oberst Factory, which crafts exquisite wallpaper for the most fashionable French homes, is a place shrouded in mystery. Most enigmatic is the woman pictured in each of its prints, rumoured to be the late Mrs Oberst, who died in peculiar...
England, 1450s. Queen Margaret knows she must protect the crown - and her son Prince Edward's claim to it. With her husband, King Henry, increasingly frail, it is up to Margaret to fight for their inheritance. As the Wars of the Roses rage on, her enemies lurk...
It's been several years since Kitty Cavanah's life was turned upside down when her family made the perilous journey across the Irish Sea to Blackburn and she became a widow. She's finally making enough to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads....
It was a wartime white wedding but it was not a love match. Annie Cooper married George McCabe for one reason only: she was expecting his child. But Annie was a girl of spirit and determined to make the marriage work. Annie applied herself to that task as she...
1945, Sunderland. Ida Boulter makes the heart-wrenching decision to leave her five children behind as she escapes her husband and moves to London to start afresh with the love of her life. 1953, County Durham. Ida's children have since built a new life in the...
Spring 1942. After a difficult few years with her husband Victor, Prue's life is about to change in a dramatic and unexpected way. Will she have the strength to carry on into a more positive future? Rookery House is bursting at the seams after Thea welcomes...
England, 1940s. Minnie has spent most of her life feeling like a plain Jane, watching things happen around her, waiting for something to happen to her. When her old best friend, the beautiful and callous Junie, unexpectedly returns to Sixteen Streets, Minnie's...
Ever since Jimmy was a boy, he's known two things: the rough streets of Merthyr Tydfil and that one day he would marry Enid Hardcastle. But when Enid disappears without a word, his life takes a different turn. Determined to make something of himself, Jimmy...
Wivenhoe, February 1940. As the war clouds gather over Europe, the Roby family are thankful to have started their new life in Wivenhoe safe from German bombs... for the moment at least. And with the safe arrival of baby Grace, family life at Harbour House...
April 1942, Bath - the nurses are under fire in the city they once thought safe... Freda knows the work she does on the home front is vital. Especially when bombs begin raining down on her beloved city of Bath and she and her friends find themselves feeling...
Egypt 1219AD. Abandoning the safety of England for the perilous shores of the Levant, Estienne Wace is thrust into the turmoil of the Fifth Crusade. Burning with righteous purpose, he is determined to reclaim the Holy Land in the name of Christ. War rages...
Cambridgeshire - 1943. As Spring blossoms, it seems love is in the air. 21 year-old John Talbot dreams of a world not at war, where he can be a father to his young son Jonny and have a wife by his side. But is nurse Lucy Ross the woman for him? When brothers...
A retelling of one of literature's great novels, Oliver Twist, from the point of view of Nancy, one of the most sympathetic, most maligned and most tragic of Dickens's characters. Nancy has spent her whole life on the vibrant and gritty streets of Victorian...
Liverpool, May 1926. Peggy and Dar Tenant's dream for security and respectability has been their driving force since they married. Just as they prepare to buy their own home tragedy strikes when Dar is involved in a devastating accident at the docks and...
1939. Europe is on the brink of change and in the fear and chaos of pre-war Italy, a painting disappears and is never seen again. 1963. London is on the cusp of change in the swinging 60s. Nightclubs are in their heyday, as are the art thieves of the East End...
Tammy and her mother, Grace, are desperate to escape Tammy's violent bully of a father. But when an unforeseen tragedy strikes, mother and daughter must flee Scotland in the dead of night. To survive the severest of penalties, they leave behind everything they...
1916, Scotland. Five years after leading a strike at the sewing factory, newly pregnant Ellen is rushed off her feet at the Clydebank Clothing Exchange. Ellen is missing her husband and worried about how to make ends meet. Meanwhile, her best friend Sadie is...
Prudence Dudley was a woman who appeared to have everything: an undeniably attractive woman who had already achieved considerable success as a novelist. Yet she remained at odds with life after her sad rejected childhood and a more recent deeply wounding...
Georgina Corrigan is dead! It must be true. It has been printed in the newspapers. How does one prove one is not dead? Georgina is forced to seek assistance from her well-connected friends to establish that she is indeed alive and well and living in Percy...
With London still in the grip of war, Cordelia, Mavis, and Jane find themselves facing a new challenge. Determined to make a difference, the librarians band together to organise rent strikes, standing up against dirty landlords and unfair practices. Meanwhile,...
1940, Stretton Village, Cambridgeshire. The start of the war and the tragic loss of their beloved father marks the end of an era for the Searles family as their children embark on their adult lives. Eldest sister Frances is about to marry her childhood...
Spring 1939. Dashing young William Burton and the beautiful Constance Han set sail from London on the same ocean liner to Hong Kong. Connie is intrigued by Will's talent for writing poetry, and as romance blossoms she offers to give him Cantonese lessons to...
1038 AD, Constantinople. Harald Sigurdsson has risen through bravery and glory in battle to become the commander of the legendary Varangian guard, the oath-sworn protector of the Roman throne in Constantinople; The wielder of the emperor's axe. With the...
Dark Age Britain crumbles. Cruel Kings of Britain sit alone atop their hilltop fortresses as brutal Saxon invaders push ever forwards, greedy for plunder and weakened British kingdoms to conquer. Blood feuds, jealousy, and pride keeps these Kingdoms isolated....
London, July 1939. Elizabeth Roby lives a content and privileged life in London with husband Jonathan and children, Emily and George. But with the outbreak of war, everything changes. Jonathan informs his family that they have to move from their smart London...
"Claverton Castle, 1940. Eagles and Spitfires fly in the skies of England as Lady Deanna, the aristocratic granddaughter of the Duke of Claverton, spends her days shovelling manure and her evenings in blue satin, attending dinner parties to gather intelligence...
Things change; we have to recognise that; the world will not stay still. What we must hope is that the new is better and stronger than the old. Anno Domini 1546. In a manor house in England a young woman feels the walls are closing round her, while her dying...
1931, Cornwall. Gwenna Rosdew had no choice but to step up as head of the family after her father was arrested for his role in a smuggling scandal. As his release date nears, she must start planning her own future - but when her journey of self-discovery leads...
Lancashire, 1929. Holcombe Hall's enigmatic owner has passed away, and as the roaring 20s come to an end, the upstairs and downstairs residents begin a new era. Parlour maid Florrie Bickerstaff has always endured the quick temper of Lady Charlotte, calmly...
In the summer of 1939, 19-year-old Olivia Goodland arrives in London. Working for a society dressmaker, she meets wealthy, beautiful Grace Ruthwell. Beguiled by the glamour of Grace's world, it's only slowly and too late that she becomes aware of the darkness...
Carrie Anderson's business selling books at her local train station is thriving and, with her beloved Mike returned from war, everything feels as though it is falling into place. That is, until Mike is sent to Washington as a liaison between Britain and...
After falling pregnant unexpectedly, 16-year-old Catrin is devastated when her neglectful father sends her away and has her baby taken from her. Then she's reunited with her brother Roddy, a trainee doctor, and Catrin determines to change her life for the...
When Charity Browne arrives at The Fitzroy Hotel on her way to a country house party, she knows there's more to the invitation than a weekend of revelry. She's old enough to be married and her family are hoping for a good match. Sparks fly when she collides...
1853. In the serene countryside of rural Yorkshire, Caroline and Trixie's unbreakable bond, forged amidst the hardships of York's slums, is the cornerstone of their shared dream: to transform their modest farm into a flourishing haven... Amidst this toil,...
From the critically acclaimed author of Cecily. 1461 Through blood and battle Edward has gained England's throne - king by right and conquest - eighteen years old and unstoppable. Cecily has piloted his rise to power and stands at his shoulder now, first to...
"In the shadowy aisles of the Lamplighter's Bookshop, secrets lie as thick as the dust. When Evelyn Seaton answers an advertisement for an assistant at a forgotten bookshop in York, she is not the only one with something to hide. There she meets the enigmatic...
"Hull, 1905. As the much doted-on daughter of the local doctor Violet Stroud had a comfortable, happy childhood - despite a distinct lack of love from her cold-hearted mother. But when her father unexpectedly dies, Violet's life is turned upside down. As...
"Working at the local pearl button factory, Ada Fletcher is doing her best to make ends meet in trying times. When tragedy strikes and her siblings are taken to a workhouse orphanage, Ada is saved from a similar fate by her neighbour, Sarah Connell. But the...
"In the summer of 1944 returning soldiers Canning Christie and his father Michael arrive in South Australia from the desert sands of North Africa. Canning carries the trauma of war and a fractured memory of a terrible event, while charismatic Michael resumes...
When orphaned Jake Harding is sent away from his adoptive home aged just seven, he does not understand why... Forced to make his own way in the world, Jake falls in with a gang of petty thieves, who make their living lifting valuables from those who are better...
"England, 1685. Decades after the end of the civil war, the country is once again divided when Charles II's illegitimate son, the Protestant Duke of Monmouth, arrives in Dorset to incite rebellion against his Catholic uncle. Armed only with pitchforks,...
"Lieutenant Charles Heywood has had his fill of adventure. Battle-weary and disillusioned, he returns to England, resolved to settle down to a quiet, uneventful life on an estate of his own. But arranging to purchase the property he desires is more difficult...
"Fredy built a wall against suffering in their hearts. At the dark heart of the Holocaust, there was a wooden hut whose walls were painted with cartoons; a place where children sang, staged plays and wrote poetry. Safely inside, but still in the shadow of the...
A comical, fantastical and witty re-imagining of the Tudor world, perfect for fans of The Princess Bride. Lady Jane Grey, 16, is about to be married to a total stranger - and caught up in an insidious plot to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But...
"Looking for a new start after her father's death, Lara Hope arrives in Lisbon in search of a family she's never met. As war storms across Europe, Lara finds solace and belonging in her landlady's tranquil bookshop in one of the most beautiful corners of the...
Desperate to protect her family, can Poppy put her trust in a stranger? When Poppy Robbins is targeted by a blackmailer threatening to reveal secrets from her family's past, she turns to the mysterious Edward Taverner for help. Taverner proposes an escape to...
New York, 1882. Amy Eaton is a bestselling authoress, much to the embarrassment of her family. Proudly 'old money', they see her professionalism as an impropriety. Despite their undisguised disdain for her, Amy is bound by a promise she made to her dying...
Their dreams are worth fighting for ... Winter, 1941. Olivia's life in Guernsey is uprooted by the Nazi occupation. Forced to flee in the dead of night, she escapes to London's East End. As she steps foot in Bethnal Green, Olivia's former life is there to...
"From his first appearance in Speaks the Nightbird to his latest adventure in The King of Shadows, Matthew Corbett has faced enemies of all kinds, from serial killers to sorcerers. Now author Robert McCammon presents eight gripping stories featuring the...
"Born into poverty in eighteenth-century England, her future was predetermined. But throughout her life Molly Thistle refused to follow the path laid out before her. Her headstrong nature, disdain for convention and desire for freedom were always destined to...
When future governor Philip Gidley King sailed with the First Fleet to the new colony, he had his pick of the convict women to look after him. Two years, and two sons later, he set out back to England to provide a report on Sydney and its newly tamed Norfolk...
BBC Radio 4 productions of JG Farrell's celebrated historical novels-plus bonus material. Acclaimed author JG Farrell came to fame with his Empire Trilogy, exploring the collapse of British colonialism and its repercussions in three different countries. The...
In 1942, a group of young women arrive in Cairo, Egypt. The Tuis, named after the beautiful New Zealand songbird, are the first women from their country to serve overseas. They are to provide respite and a touch of home to weary soldiers returning from the...
AD 781. Pagan Saxony groans under the Christian yoke. The invincible armies of Karolus, King of the Franks, occupy all this freedom-loving land and every Saxon must submit to baptism and pay tithes to the Church, or face death by beheading. Duke Widukind,...
Flora Thompson was born in 1876 at Juniper Hill on the Oxfordshire/Northamptonshire border. She is best known as the author of Lark Rise to Candleford, that classic and evocative observation of her rural childhood which has been a best-seller since its...
May, 1964. At a youth festival in East Berlin, an unlikely young couple fall in love. In the bright spring days, anything seems possible for them - it is only many years later, after her death, that Kaspar discovers the price his wife paid to get to him to...
East London, 1916. The Sanctuary Lane Animal Hospital is proving a huge success. For its founder Ruby Archer, this is a dream come true - and her blossoming romance with a local boy is the icing on the cake. But in wartime things change in the blink of an eye....
England, 1943. With Christmas days away, the land girls of Gosling Farm are full of merriment. Only Lottie feels far from festive cheer after her sister's death. But with the help of handsome vicar and injured veteran Matthew, she begins to feel hopeful once...
In A Wartime Christmas at Rookery House, former cook Hettie Brown hears some shocking news, making her question her new life at Rookery House. Expectant mother, Gloria Jessop, is having doubts about her new evacuated life in the village. She's missing her...
Tearaway Viv's fragile truce with her grandmother is threatened when her flighty mother suddenly shows up from America and expects to pick up where she left off. It's what Viv's always dreamed of - but is she ready for the drama Pauline brings with her? Helen...
South Africa, 1820. When Ann Waite discovers a shipwreck in Algoa Bay she is stunned to find survivors - a scarred sailor and a little boy. As the man walks away into the distance alone, Ann is left to raise the young child, Harry, in place of the baby she...
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